


and There Was One Bed

by Anonymous



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Banter, M/M, ridiculous hockey shit that happens in game, soft brrroooss sharing beds on a roady together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24428974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: He couldn’t possibly be serious, but they both were holding their arms out. And he stands there frozen, hearing something echo and he’s got to catch it before it slips.
Relationships: Chris "Chowder" Chow/Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: Anonymous





	and There Was One Bed

Creeping along the mountain pass, Nursey swore the bus was going to catch black ice and send the whole team to their final destination, into the mouth of wolves and their mothers and all unknown else.

“You might not be talking right now,” Dex’s voice cut through from the aisle seat, “but you’re making me nervous and I need you to shut up the fuck up, Nurse.”

“Shut up I’m trying to think about who I can count on saving me if we do crash. And no, it’s not going to be you… Scrawny ass —”

Chris in the middle seat stirred.

“I literally passed you in last week’s bench mark—”

From the front, the southern curl around words made them freeze in horror, “Who is _talkin’_ back there?”

Dex shot Nursey a look just as he did the same, but Nursey twitched a challenging eyebrow for the fun of it, and watched the blush rise out of his winter-pale skin. Dex decided to completely block him out for the rest of the night ride for the hotel.

It wasn’t too far until they saw the city lights of a forest town. Where they were playing was still another short ride away, up in the mountains as an outdoor rink. It’s the physical peak of where winning tourneys got them, and Chris was dreaming about how the ice would glitter in his paintless crease.

Nurse gets up first despite being in the window seat, and starts shuffling past the two.

“Get your ass-” Dex pushed him away at the hip, and Nurse laughed and admittedly, it made him grin too.

Dex takes courtesy of waking Chris up, and he blinks to his familiar surroundings.

“Did I drool?” Is the first they hear from him since the trip started.

As much as they’ve learned single file line since elementary, they simply crowd their tiny captain into the lodge, murmuring and questioning about who their roomies were going to be. It should have been a stable and solid process, but after someone got a lower body injury from a wrestling game, things were promised to switch up. It was all for the better.

“Oli and Wick, roommates. Next up, —”

Nurse made a face, standing next to Dex who regrettably carried all the trio’s luggage. It was really the on going retort for being dubbed ‘scrawny’.

“Didn’t Bitty change the roomie roster?” Chris raised a brow.

“Hopefully, so I won’t have to sleep with Nurse.”

“Oh?”

“Christ, not like that. Can I say anything without you-”

“Chow, Derek Nurse and,” Coach narrowed his eyes at the iPad, still a bit jarred by technology, “the hell does that say? Oh, Pointdextah. You’re all up in a room.”

Bitty shows up out of nowhere with the key and tries not to comment on how red Dex’s face had gotten.

“Thanks Bitty,” Chris took the key.

“Y’all don’t stay up too late.” He’s gone again into the crowd of his team, awarding room keys with each pair that’s announced. His job was made easy from how predictable lineys a dmen stuck to each other.

They all march up the respective left or right staircases to their rooms. A few groups have to huddle into the elevator, including the trio that were isolated into one room. Dex had Chris pressed up against his chest, and he had Nursey to look over at from behind Chris’ shoulder. Bastard gave him a smile, and right when his blush was sure to be gone, it raised again.

The players spill out of the elevator and Dex makes initiative for the left hallway, but Nursey catches his hand and points his chin up at the numbers indicating the rooms.

“Wrong way, dumbass.”

Dex snorted and shook his hand off, following alongside him behind Chris who took him to their room that was a long fucking walk all. The. Way. To the end.

Shoving the key in, Chris jostles the door open and the room wafted its cold air onto everyone. Dex set the bags down, and Nursey immediately dropped dead weight onto the queen sized mattress.

As Chris checked out the bathroom and exclaimed about some tile detail for Dex, Dex was busy pulling the curtains back to see their view. The rest of the humble city was beyond them, in old fashion and timber. He was starting to become shy of homesick, but the scuttle of play fight behind him fogged over his thoughts.  
As Dex whipped around, the realization finally dawned on him.

Chris got himself wrapped around Nursey on the only bed in the room, having him devilishly pinned. Lanky goalies really had some outside force.

“Dex! Help me out,” Chris laughed, thinking he was impressed rather than shocked.

“There’s… We only have one bed.”

Finally getting out of his hold, Nursey sat up, “Yea man. Me and Chris shared a lot of them during a roadie. Hey, what’d Johnson say about single beds again? That guy was pretty stitious.”

“I dunno,” Chris stretched out his long limbs, “he sounded like it was serious business. Hey, at least it’s not a twin.”

Dex closed his eyes and counted up to ten in the span of two seconds. Surprise, his shock was still there.

“You’ve never had to share a bed, Dexter?” Nursey was starting to tease, “Aw come on, come here, we give the best cuddles.”

He couldn’t possibly be serious, but they both were holding their arms out. And he stands there frozen, hearing something echo and he’s got to catch it before it slips. It’s Jack’s voice, somewhere in a blur of a moment with very little context, and Dex’s mind perfectly replicates that stupid charming accent he’s got. It was after Dex crashed into him in practice, and they ended up as a tangled embarrassment until Dex let the captain sort their shit out.

 _It’s not weird if you make it weird._

“Dude.” Nursey spoke again, his voice rasping deep as he’s coming down from the adrenaline of being in a new place, “I can wait years to get a hug from Pointdexter.”

A compliment or not it finally made Dex fidget. He took off the last bag from his shoulders and awkwardly climbed in. He was stale as a board while he rested his head back onto Nursey’s arm. Chris looked over from the other side, curled up and already drifting despite his hours on end of sleep.

Neither of them pushed or prodded Dex. He was there, laying beside Nursey with his arm around his shoulders and that was it. Possibly the least anti climatic thing he’s ever been victim to.

That’s a lie. His heart’s pounding hard like it’s working to bury his embarrassment dead.

“When’s breakfast tomorrow?” Chris whispered, and nuzzled his head into Nursey’s shoulder as he closed his eyes.

“I don’t know. I don’t think Bitty’s ready for the fight in the buffet.”

Snorting, Dex managed to mimic Chris. He relaxed further into Nursey, and turned onto his side more rather than his back. He kept his hands between his knees, not sure where to put them. He stared at Chris’ hand over Nursey’s heart, but refrained from joining him. Instead he mumbled out:

“I’ll break a plate over your head before you touch the hashbrowns.”

“Oh my god,” Chris laughed, “is he still holding a grudge when you ate his hashbrown? Wasn’t that last year at that one McDonalds?”

“He brings it up like it’s won him every argument. You’d be a terrible lawyer, Mister Dex.”

Dex no longer had the energy to retort. He was asleep before he was reminded about the Hashbrown incident.

\- 1 Year Later -

It was certainly… A game.

Chris was pulled during a Samwell powerplay in the first period because coach was feeling risky and underestimated their opposition. The constant roar of the home team really proved him how wrong he was.

So he glued Chris to his cage and kept an eye on who let a forward slip past defense for that early goal, and Dex carried the guilt on his shoulders. Desperate to redeem himself in late second period, a puck was sent from the blue line and Dex swore for bottom corner until a body dropped in front of him.

All he could see was red. He was going to yell a petty, ‘Heads up!’ but he watched the player grab for their skate, where the puck hit them right in the ankle. But Dex was starting to consider embellishment, and threw his hands up with a few spare words before a referee grabbed him like a kitten, leading him to the box.

“Alright, I know, I know it’s not a good call but we’re having none of that targeting shit son.” Ref was pretty easy going and Dex glided along, too pent up to say anything else.

He held his stick between his knees and stared off across to the home bench. He could see their coach shaking his head, whether at the call or at William or both. Before he could decide it was both, Nursey passed by, blowing a kiss at Dex before getting positioned at the dot.

So for the game, Dex allowed goal, nearly murdered someone’s entire foot off and sat in the box for a miscalled slash.

And just as he’s out, having to make a sprint to the bench for a change, the whistle blows play dead for too many men.

Coach looks at him, mouths Not your fault and goes to sit in the box again.

After he’s back on the bench, and finally gets a drink of cold water, they’re up by three from help of Nursey, Bitty and even an assist for Chris, who cellied despite the low growl of boos. 

Line change was long overdue and finally fresh legs took the ice. Bitty was near a hattrick and Dex was on the blue line for an assist. He went for a slapshot to bank it off the corner and onto Bitty’s tape until — He looks down at the broken twig in his hands, and before he could process and finally drop the now weaponized hockey stick — Play. Blew. Dead.

He could hear Nursey’s howling laugh from the bench. He knocked the toe of his skate against the boards in rhythm and everyone else joined in like they were celebrating. Second period finally came to a close, but Dex was starting third in the box anyways.

They go home with the win, 6-2, and Dex can’t even be mad. When he sits down in the locker room of loud conversation, he shakes his head and laughs while he unties his skates.

“We don’t have our locker room trophy with us, but Player of the Game,” A player gets up, kneeling to Chowder like a knight, “Christopher Chow, I give you half of Pointdexter’s sword.”

Taking the blade end of it, Chris grins and Nursey pipes up from his locker seat besides Dex: “What a shitty tape job!”

“Yeah! Way to go!”

And the chirps make him laugh harder.

When they’re finally riding the last wave of a win and they’re stuffed from the hotel’s buffet, Dex gets into bed. He’s the first one in, curled up on his side in the middle. And soon, Nursey joins him, claiming his front side by wrapping his arms around him.

Chris finally comes out of the bathroom after his shower, and Nursey smirks, sitting up. His hand rests on the skin exposed from Dex’s ridden up shirt, and he drawls, “Come here, first star.”

“Do I get something?” Chris’ eyes spark up every time and kneeled on the bed.

“Yeah, a good night kiss,” Dex brought him down by the neck and gave him a peck, and Nursey did the same.

Content with exactly that, Chris spooned Dex’s side the best he could, with his nose in the crook of his neck where he smelled like hotel shampoo. Nursey’s arm over Dex came over to rest on Chris’ bicep, and he smoothed his thumb under his short sleeve.

Dex already had his eyes closed, ready to finally sleep, but a laugh bubbled from his chest.

“I fucking hated that game.”

“Well you had me cry from laughing like twice. You know that quick shift change? Yeah I didn’t have to come back to fix my laces, I literally couldn’t breathe.”

“I almost let in a goal because I was thinking about your face when the ref called you for carrying a broken stick,” Chris laughed.

“Stop,” Nursey started too, his nose scrunching up, “my lungs still hurt!”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for fun so by no means is it accurate, or let alone good. Nevertheless, thank you for reading!


End file.
